Robin Holcomb

Friday, September 12

This week Robin Holcomb plays the Chapel Performance Space, which is a cathedral-like room in the upper reaches of the Good Shepherd Center, a sprawling community hall built in 1906. The performance space owes its name to its vaulted white ceilings, stained glass windows, and wonderfully echo-y acoustics. And Holcomb's music is much like the building  mysterious, beautiful, and frequently overlooked. Over the past decade, Holcomb has played regularly with Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, and other members of Seattle's jazz avant-guard, but in recent years her talents have been overshadowed by those of her collaborators. Her music is a unique mix of jazz and folk  verbose pop songs with lilting melodies that appear and vanish within a single chorus. Her songs are at their best when stripped down to piano and vocals, which allows them to drift in different directions. Since Holcomb doesn't perform too much these days, take advantage of this opportunity to see her in a setting that couldnt be more fitting.